Experimental Study Of Human Meniscal Mechanical Characteristics Of The Biological Material

Objective: Conduct experimental biomechanical study on the meniscus.Provide basis for the analysis of injury mechanism, prevention, and materialreplacement after injury. Methods: Take6menisci of non-lesions right knees from adultmales of age from20to45. Divide meniscus into anterior horn, body and posterior horn.Prepare standard testing pieces by frozen section machine. The standard testing piecesdivided into several groups (n=12) were named medial/lateral meniscus anterior hornfrontal plane, medial/lateral meniscus anterior horn horizontal plane, medial/lateralmeniscus body sagittal plane, medial/lateral meniscus body horizontal plane,medial/lateral meniscus posterior horn frontal plane and medial/lateral meniscusposterior horn horizontal plane. Conduct stretching test and stress relaxation test andmake comparison of different parts. Results:(1)The comparison of medial meniscus andlateral meniscus:①There are significant differences in elastic module between someparts of the medial meniscus and lateral meniscus(P≤0.05).②There is no significantdifference between medial meniscus and lateral meniscus on relaxation rate (P＞0.05).③There are distinct differences in tensile stiffness, elastic modulus, fracture stress andfracture strain(P≤0.05).(2)The comparison results between different parts of themedial/lateral meniscus as the plane fixed:①There are significant differences withinelastic module between some parts(P≤0.05).②For the medial/lateral meniscus bodyhorizontal plane, the relaxation rate is relatively litter than other parts(P≤0.05).③Thereare significant differences in tensile stiffness between some parts of the lateral meniscus.(3)The comparison results between different planes of the medial/lateral meniscus as thepart fixed:①There are significant differences in elastic module between differentplanes of the meniscus, no regularity (P≤0.05).②There are significant differences onrelaxation rate between different planes of the meniscus, no regularity (P≤0.05).③There are significant differences in tensile stiffness between different planes of themeniscus, no regularity (P≤0.05). Conclusions:(1) Compared with medial meniscus,lateral meniscus is prone to injure, which is related with the poor elasticity and tensileability of itself.(2) The medial meniscus and lateral meniscus have the same ability toadjust load.(3) There is a certain relationship between the viscoelasticity of differentparts and planes of meniscus and its position, surrounding soft tissue and load.(4) As aresult of the anisotropy and heterogeneity of the meniscus, it is very hard to find theproper displacement materials after the meniscus is injured.